The Grapes of Wrath

Ma wiped her hands on the dish towel and she squatted down in front of her daughter, and she put her two hands on Rose of Sharon’s hair. “You’re a good girl,” she said. “You always was a good girl. I’ll take care a you. Don’t you fret.” She put an interest in her tone. “Know what you an’ me’s gonna do? We’re a-goin’ to that dance, an’ we’re a-gonna set there an watch. If anybody says to come dancewhy, I’ll say you ain’t strong enough. I’ll say you’re poorly. An’ you can hear the music an’ all like that.”

Rose of Sharon raised her head. “You won’t let me dance?”

“No, I won’t.”

“An’ don’ let nobody touch me.”

“No, I won’t.” The girl sighed. She said desperately, “I don’ know what I’m a-gonna do, Ma. I jus’ don’ know. I don’ know.”

Ma patted her knee. “Look,” she said. “Look here at me. I’m a-gonna tell ya. In a little while it ain’t gonna be so bad. In a little while. An’ that’s true. Now come on. We’ll go get washed up, an’ we’ll put on our nice dress an’ we’ll set by the dance.” She led Rose of Sharon toward the sanitary unit.

Pa and Uncle John squatted with a group of men by the porch of the office. “We nearly got work today,” Pa said. “We was jus’ a few minutes late. They awready got two fellas. An’, well, sir, it was a funny thing. They’s a straw boss there, an’ he says, ’We jus’ got some two-bit men. ’Course we could use twenty-cent men. We can use a lot of twenty-cent men. You go to your camp an’ say we’ll put a lot a fellas on for twenty cents.’”

The squatting men moved nervously. A broad-shouldered man, his face completely in the shadow of a black hat, spatted his knee with his palm. “I know it, goddamn it!” he cried. “An’ they’ll git men. They’ll git hungry men. You can’t feed your fam’ly on twenty cents an hour, but you’ll take anything. They got you goin’ an’ comin’. They jes’ auction a job off. Jesus Christ, pretty soon they’re gonna make us pay to work.”

“We would of took her,” Pa said. “We ain’t had no job. We sure would a took her, but they was them guys in there, an’ the way they looked, we was scairt to take her.”

Black Hat said, “Get crazy thinkin’! I been workin’ for a fella, an’ he can’t pick his crop. Cost more jes’ to pick her than he can git for her, an’ he don’ know what to do.”

“Seems to me—” Pa stopped. The circle was silent for him. “Well— I jus’ thought, if a fella had an acre. Well, my woman she could raise a little truck an’ a couple pigs an’ some chickens. An’ us men could get out an’ find work, an’ then go back. Kids could maybe go to school. Never seen sech schools as out here.”

“Our kids ain’t happy in them schools,” Black Hat said. “Why not? They’re pretty nice, them schools.”

“Well, a raggedy kid with no shoes, an’ them other kids with socks on, an’ nice pants, an’ them a-yellin’ ’Okie.’ My boy went to school. Had a fight ever’ day. Done good, too. Tough little bastard. Ever’ day he got to fight. Come home with his clothes tore an’ his nose bloody. An’ his ma’d whale him. Made her stop that. No need ever’body beatin’ the hell outa him, poor little fella. Jesus! He give some a them kids a goin’-over, though— them nice-pants sons-a-bitches. I dunno. I dunno.”

Pa demanded, “Well, what the hell am I gonna do? We’re outa money. One of my boys got a short job, but that won’t feed us. I’m a-gonna go an’ take twenty cents. I got to.”

Black Hat raised his head, and his bristled chin showed in the light, and his stringy neck where the whiskers lay flat like fur. “Yeah!” he said bitterly. “You’ll do that. An’ I’m a two-bit man. You’ll take my job for twenty cents. An’ then I’ll git hungry an’ I’ll take my job back for fifteen. Yeah! You go right on an’ do her.”

“Well, what the hell can I do?” Pa demanded. “I can’t starve so’s you can get two bits.”

Black Hat dipped his head again, and his chin went into the shadow. “I dunno,” he said. “I jes’ dunno. It’s bad enough to work twelve hours a day an’ come out jes’ a little bit hungry, but we got to figure all a time, too. My kid ain’t gettin’ enough to eat. I can’t think all the time, goddamn it! It drives a man crazy.” The circle of men shifted their feet nervously.

TOM STOOD at the gate and watched the people coming in to the dance. A floodlight shone down into their faces. Willie Eaton said, “Jes’ keep your eyes open. I’m sendin’ Jule Vitela over. He’s half Cherokee. Nice fella. Keep your eyes open. An’ see if you can pick out the ones.”

“O.K.,” said Tom. He watched the farm families come in, the girls with braided hair and the boys polished for the dance. Jule came and stood beside him.

“I’m with you,” he said.

Tom looked at the hawk nose and the high brown cheek bones and the slender receding chin. “They says you’re half Injun. You look all Injun to me.”

“No,” said Jule. “Jes’ half. Wisht I was a full-blood. I’d have my lan’ on the reservation. Them full-bloods got it pretty nice, some of ’em.”

“Look a them people,” Tom said.